HAMILTON HAMILTON PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
HAMILTON HAMILTON
American, 1847 - 1928
BIOGRAPHY
Hamilton Hamilton was born in Oxford, England on April 1, 1847. He was a protégé of John Ruskin at an early age before he emigrated with his family to America. They settled in Cowlesville, near Buffalo, New York. Hamilton traveled to Europe in 1870 and studied briefly in Paris before returning to Buffalo where he set up a studio working initially as a portrait artist.
It was to landscape painting which Hamilton turned to next, and in 1873 he undertook a trip to Colorado painting forty-seven vibrant landscapes. Many of these were exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. After this exhibition, with his reputation firmly established, Hamilton returned to France and spent the years 1878 and 1879 painting alongside the French landscape painters of Barbizon and Pont Aven.
In 1881, Hamilton moved to New York City and added genre painting and etching to his range of specialties. He became an Associate Member of the National Academy in 1886 and a full Academician in 1889. The artist continued to divide his time between the Buffalo area, New York, Long Island and Colorado for the rest of the century. In 1907-08, he spent two years painting landscapes in Southern California.
Hamilton’s family moved permanently to Norwalk, Connecticut in 1912 and there be became involved with the Silvermine Group of Artists (led by Solon Borglum). After Borglum’s death in 1922, Hamilton and other artists founded the Silvermine Guild of Artists.
Hamilton married Helen McIlhenney, sister of the artist Charles Morgan McIlhenney, and in 1889 they had twin daughters, Helen and Marguerite, both of whom served as his models and became accomplished artists. The artist died on January 4, 1928 in Norwalk, Connecticut having led a varied and successful
Museum Collections
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
East Hampton Historical Society, East Hampton, NY
Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL
National Academy of Design, New York
National Gallery, Washington, DC
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
